If you know of a PF book/blog, written by somebody who has actually made their money BEFORE writing their little book/blog … let me know … you will save me a lot of trouble – I can simply delete all of my posts and write a page that says: read this, and lie on my hammock all day – every day – sipping Pina Coladas and reading the current issue of Mad Magazine.

Equally, if your target is just an amount like $1 Million in 15 years, then you do NOT need to read this blog – you will get far more benefit for your time invested in reading here, here, and here, or probably ANY of the places listed here.

However, if (as I suspect) your Life’s Dream requires more fuel than $1 Million – $ 2 Million in 10 – 30 years can spin off, then … congratulations … you have finally stumbled upon the RIGHT PLACE!

Because, I will tell you exactly how to get it …

… I just won’t tell you exactly what to invest in: I’ll leave that for all the scammers, faux-gurus, and one-trick ponies out there. And, there are plenty!

So, enjoy reading … sign up for the RSS feed, if you like, and feel free comment on this – or any other – post and/or contact me using the form below:

Now, keep reading … the rest of this post continues under the contact form ….

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About Adrian J Cartwood:

If you read my little bio, you will see that I have made a lot of money (really!), but I made it BECAUSE of my passion to learn about money and teach others. I read a lot, experimented a lot, tried lots of conventional (and unconventional) wisdom.

The result: I made 7 million in 7 years™ … and, I started out broke (actually, worse, with a failed business and owing $30,000!). Now, plenty of people have made (and then write books about) “How I saved myself to $1 Million”, “How I made $5 Million trading shares (OR insert the method of choice: buying property, OR starting an online business, OR ….]”. They can tell you how THEY (maybe) made millions and skim a few bucks from you for their “secret system”.

The difference is that I made millions in businesses (yes, a number), properties (some large, some small), joint ventures (a few), and in a few other ways, as well … I’ve saved and skimped my way to a fortune, but, I’ve also spent my way to a bigger fortune … I’ve been in good debt and bad debt. I’ve tried it all, done it all (OK, not all, but far more than most).

What I finally realized, after years of trial and error (more like trial and tribulation) is that there is a system to making money; most of the pieces are known, but have never been fully detailed and shared with the world … before.

I had to find these rules by research, then trial and (lots of $$$ and time-wasting) error; you won’t have to … you will have a true Roadmap to Riches™

Not a bad problem to have, Benjamin, but KEEPING your money can often be harder than MAKING it in the first place!

If you are young and what you have is not The Number, then remain aggressive … now could be a great time to hop back into real-estate (cheap prices; cheap money … doesn’t happen too often … come to think of it, it almost NEVER happens!).

If you are old and want to kick back, consider some defensive strategies (real-estate, ironically, is still a GREAT OPTION), such as those advocated by Zvi Bodie (Worry Free Investing) and Paul Grangaard (The Grangaard Strategy).

If stocks are more your thing … then you can start with Phil Town’s system (Rule #1 Investing).

Now, you never need to read another one of my blogs again …

… oh, UNLESS, you actually want to know the rules of the road (to riches) 😉

Blogrdoc, your seemingly disapproving comment raises an obvious and legitimate question; to which the answer is … varied and many:

I have an upcoming post that references Guy Kawasaki’s blog (why does an Apple co-founder and Angel Investor blog?!), which references a CNET study (get a cup of coffee, this could go on for a while), whihc states that Influencers (a.k.a. bloggers) do it primarily to help others.

That’s one excuse and I’m sticking to it 🙂 PLUS I have a book in mind … one that I have wanted to write since I started my journey from ($30k) to $7m in 7 years … but, I’m not ready yet and this blog (and it’s readers) are a great way to test my ideas on others.

Though clearly not a link to your 1040, your nuanced answer suggests to me a non-zero (though still quite low) hance that your claims are true. I *just* (10 sec) ago blogged on why a 6-figured salary engineer would go to Starbucks to do some freelance work for peanuts.

In response to “Big Cheese” asking if everyone had 7 million if the value would be diluted. It depends! 🙂
If everyone has 7 million because of hyper inflation of the currency, obviously yes it has been diluted. But let’s say it in terms of “if everyone had 7 million 2008 dollars” – then the answer, in my view, is no.
One major fallacy I see is the fixed pie idea of economics, that if someone has more wealth (not money) someone else must have less. This is obviously false, a person in poverty today lives in many regards better than a medieval king (I bet King Richard would’ve loved some AC!); 98% of ancient Egypt was subsistence farming. Yuck!
When you make money honestly you are making it by way of giving someone something better than what else they think they could get for the same sum of their money (and vice versa, when you accept a job for payment it is because you would rather get the money than not do the job). If everyone were to “make” millions what would likely happen, if the fed weren’t to print money, is not so much that everyone’s balance would go up (since every increase infers a decrease) but instead the value of the dollar would go up as more and better services compete for it.
This is why helping lots of people with a great service is the ‘quickest’ way to get rich – you are making lots of people a lot better off!

Hahaha, my point is that you make money by getting other people’s money — and if you don’t use a handgun to do it then I bet you’re giving people something they want more than anything else they could spend their money on. That is “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” – the baker wants your money, you want to eat. I want to own a yacht, you want my awesome widget. If almost everyone wants a widget or two then I’ll get that yacht and everyone is happier for it.

Stolid – just thought I would point out that the homeless in our country are doing better than most everyone else here. They are broke, while the rest of the country is in debt (which is below broke)… And yet they still survive.

The rich get richer because they give others a means to earn an income. The more they make, the more they do for those who don’t assume a responcibility to help others and only do for themselves.

Their wealth isn’t in their pockets, it is in the equity of the businesses they open. Businesses with jobs for those who are selfish and only think of themselves and what they will make now.

The mega wealthy open colleges, hospitals, manufacturing companies,etc… Places for others to earn a living.

Notice I use EARN, the wealthy know to develop thier income passively and with delayed gratification. Read Robert Kiyosaki’s book/s, you’ll learn what schools, colleges and universities don’t teach. They only do a good job of teaching how to be better employees.

Just want say, I used some harsh words and inuendo’s that may have struck a nerve with any of the readers here. My appologies! Sincerely! There is great cause for me to do this…

There are no longer massive manufacturing plants for people to be employed. And, companies that are opening are high tech with alot of automation systems, requiring very few people to operate. Of which are coming straight from their collage graduations. The older mature employee, who may have taken a position is many times working for a person half thier age, not good…

People in their mid 30’s and older, need to strike out and do their own thing. A hundred years ago, better than 65 percent of the population were their own boss, with maybe a few employees.

Today, people only know to find a job and are competing with sometimes hundreds of possible candidates for a position. They are stagnating as an employee or from job hoping from job to job to job. 20 years ago, an individual had on average 8 different jobs throughout their life time. Today, by the age of 38, an individual is likely to have had 14 jobs changes. Also, on average accross the country, it is taking 2 1/2 incomes to maintain a house hold. Terrible for the Kids parents!

I am going to get tough, because it is important for you middle aged and older individuals out there to wake up. Strike out on your own and focus on your own business. The tax laws are in your favor and made for the entreprenuer. (sp) I once worked framing homes for a summer. A number of times, young men would come back to my boss and either have a coffee or other times, ask how to do something.

I asked him who they were and he said they each use to work with him. After 5 or 6 years, him told these young men to leave, he could not teach them anymore and that he could not pay them more than the $12 an hour. Knowing that this was for thier own good, as they got married and have children, they would need to do better.

People, everyone of you are worth more than a hourly wage… Hourly people are helping others achieve their wealth while you are there with them, but if you ask them they are more than likely tell you you’ll do better investing your time into yourself.

My father worked full time at NCR and did part-time work on the side. Soon, he learned to do very well for himself and was making more than his full time job. Success doesn’t come over night, sometimes several years. But it does come!

I have gone on long enough, take a moment and look at your dreams… Your dreams will take you to your success! Dream! Struggle! Victory! Just like trying to ride a bike, you’ll take some falls time and time again. Thats OK, you’ll learn more from your mistakes than you will triing to do it right the first time. Mistakes are tax right offs anyway…

@ Haiyan – Quick and easy? When you find out, YOU write this blog 😉 In the meantime, I’ll keep writing about getting rich(er) quick(er) … not as fast as you’d like, but also not as slow as trying to save your way to wealth. If that suits you, welcome!

Although other PF bloggers like myself may not have made their seven million yet, it doesn’t discount our insights, teachings, what we have learned, or what we can teach others. I do not have seven million yet but I have just about all the principles in place for reaching seven million later on.

And not all PF Bloggers are equal. Some blogs have PF titles but will then also ramble on (like many bloggers do) about politics, culture, whatever else besides the supposed blog topic. I think I’ve been pretty good at setting up a blog that stays on an even course and is well set up to keep providing readers with content they can use.

I’ve been to your blog once before, much earlier, but it looks like things have got more exciting here lately, so I’ll be reading some more!

@ Money Energy – Absolutely true! I am supporter of the PF blogosphere … and, they mostly seem to focus on what the majority want: get out of debt, save their way to retirement. I aim at those – like you – who seem to want a little more …

I love the above comment on the homeless. At least they aren’t “underwater” on their homes and upside down on their balance sheets.

I’ll be reading with interest on how, as the months unfold, you, AJ, suggest that any of us might make $7 million in 7 years (or even 10 years) when the US banks, insurance companies, auto companies, and health care industry are all nationalized or, if not nationalized, regulated so heavily they might as well be.

As more private capital becomes subject to the whim and discretion of political favor, I’m thinking the readers of this and similar blogs, as good as the advice may have been at one time, hardly stand a chance. The very unspoken premise of your advice—a free market—is dissolving before our eyes.

Even so, a few suggestions that come to mind: party stores, gas stations, restaurants, bars and taverns, holiday baskets, scrap metal, “junk,” and any other goods or services that can be potentially sold at high volume for cash. Not all that attractive for me, an attorney.

Yet, I’m reading with interest and acting with enthusiasm because the reality is, we don’t have any other choice. God help us all.

@ Marc – Warren Buffett would say “buy when others are fearful” … he has put his money where his mouth is: moving his personal funds from “nice, safe bonds” to US stocks right during the very time that you say is the ‘end of the free market economy’. Firstly, I would have more faith in WB’s opinion than most others as he has a proven track record over many boom/bust cycles. Secondly, even if you are right, so what? The market dissolves, your and my cash is worthless anyway … so, I’m happy to invest even while I stock up my pantry with baked beans.

What are you doing to survive, if you are right, and profit, if you are wrong? Besides crying and praying … ?

Hence, AJ, why I’m “reading with interest AND ACTING with enthusiasm.” I have, as you rightly point out, no other choice.

Even so, don’t get me started on Warren Buffett. He’s now a Big Government billionaire, against low income tax rates, was for “taxing the hell out of people,” and the preservation of the estate tax—not exactly a front and center agenda for the newly enterprising. Too boot, his stock hasn’t exactly held up these last few months.

He’s also for taxing the rich and wants his personal taxes raised; he has donated his ENTIRE stake in Berkshire Hathaway to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and, can only lose the bulk of the remainder of his (much smaller, remaining) fortune if estate taxes are preserved. Hmmmm …..

First, he could easily raise his personal taxes by taking a salary from BH, not dividend and capital gains income. That’s his call. Then he’d be paying the same rate as his secretary.

Second, is that a “good” thing that he’s “for” taxing the rich? The “rich,” if you define them as the top 5% of all earners in the US already pay over 60% of all taxes! So, aren’t they paying enough? Over 40% of all earners pay no taxes at all. Shouldn’t they have some “skin in the game”?

Third, yes, WB donated the lions share to Gates’s foundation. We don’t need an estate tax for him to do that. He could do it in the complete absence of an estate tax. If he’s saying he wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t for tax avoidance purposes, does that diminish his gift? Surely, in the eyes of some, it would. But, more importantly, why make it difficult for others with businesses just because one billionaire wants an estate tax. I can’t tell you the hoops successful business owners have to go through to provide for payment of the estate tax so it doesn’t wipe out the business or cause it to be sold.

No, WB is a great investor. That’s for sure. He’s not a social planner and he’s not doing your readers any favors by shooting off his mouth about something he has little understanding. He’s advocating social policy that is anathema to the hard working entrepreneurs that would be ecstatic to have earned half a billion dollars, let alone WB’s multiples of billions.

Now, let’s make some money ourselves so we really have to worry about those problems!

I just stumbled across this site, and am intrigued. The timeline is what hits me the most. I had come up with 7 years myself, and am in the process of figuring out how to become wealthy in that amount of time. I picked 7 years, because 7 years ago, Barak Obama was an unknown state senator from Illinois. His life has completely changed in that time, and I am trying to do the same for my family. As a Chicagoan, its someone I can identify with pretty easily. Now, I just need to figure out how. Hopefully, this site will help with that.

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